HEADLINE: Away from the restrictions of a tour, Mann plays it loose and
breezy at Toad's

BYLINE: ROGER CATLIN; Courant Rock Critic

BODY:
A headlining club show in the middle of opening a bunch
of amphitheater dates promised a loose evening, but nothing like this.

Aimee Mann walked out to the adoring crowd at Toad's Place in New Haven
Monday night, acoustic guitar slug over her shoulder, as if she had nothing
planned.

"Whaddaya wanna hear?" she asked.

She began solo acoustic, but one by one her knowing band -- guitarist
Clayton Scobell, drummer Milt Sutton, a New Haven native, and ringer Brian
Stevens of the Cavedogs -- joined in, so that by the end she had an "Unplugged"-style
ensemble that grew in volume as Mann shed her acoustic for electric bass
and Sutton moved from shaker to brushes to drumsticks.

Mann's voice seems to have increased its tremolo as her songwriting has
become more assured, and the once painfully shy stage presence now seems
to have been erased. Perhaps hardened somewhat by the soured relationships
she sings about, she has emerged as a stronger performer, who was clearly
having a good time on a night off from her summer tour, opening for the
Kinks.

It helps, too, that she has a strong new album from which to draw songs.

"Whatever" is her first recording since 'Til Tuesday's impressive
finale, "Everything's Different Now," five years ago. Its smartly-turned
phrases and rewarding melodies ring even more clear on the stage than on
the recording, hampered at times by an unnecessarily fussy production.

Bitter songs about her publicized relationship with fellow songwriter
Jule Shear in particular still predominate in the acrid sentiment of songs
such as "Stupid Thing."

It held up well against the older material from her former band, which
made up about half the 15-song set.

Mann, wearing a faded 'Til Tuesday T-shirt, still has strong feelings
for some work on her three albums with the band. And with songs such as
"The Other End of the Telescope," co-written with Elvis Costello,
it's easy to see why.

Things did start breaking down good-naturedly toward the end, as she
was edging against her only successful solo single so far, "I Should
Have Known." Warning about the first guitar solo she was about to take
("a frightening thing to behold"), she fulfilled the prophecy
by breaking her guitar strap just as the song was beginning.

The band turned to a verse from the Rutles' Beatles parody, "Get
Up and Go" and she did a duet with opening act Pat Luciano on one of
his songs, and they played a fair version of "Way Back When" without
rehearsal, she says, before trying the hit one more time. And though the
solo wasn't the greatest ever played, the crowd cheered it anyway.

An encore of "Voices Carry," 'Til Tuesday's biggest hit, was
robbed of its tension and the emotion when they jumped up its beat. But
it was also shed of any sort of embarassment having to do with the impossibly
dated and once very popular video that accompanied it.

She was really scratching her head by the time it came to the second
encore, when she managed, after a long time trying to remember all the chords,
"J for Jules." Which means she's getting over that relationship,
after all.